3D to touch

Welcome to interactive 3D on the web!
This page only exists to be fun, so feel free and play around with my 3D models. Be aware
that it can be a great strain on your browser, memory, and processor. So if you feel your
computer slowing down, reload this page, or close it entirely. Also, if you resize the window
you will have to reload the model to adjust the size. This section depends on WebGL, which is not supported by all
browsers, and some do support it but you have to explicitly turn it on. So if you click on one of the buttons below and nothing happens,
chances are that your browser does not support WebGL.

Below you find buttons to choose the model you'd like to look at. Once clicked, be patient
as the model has to be loaded and rendered. Once loaded, you can navigate with your mouse, as
described below (you can try it out before loading a model, right now). Below the model, a short description of what you see can be found.
No go ahead and enjoy!

Sudden Stratospheric Warmings:

U and EP flux

T and EP flux

Feb 23 1979

Other:

Climatology

Mar 02-04 2013

The first two items show the climatology of splitting events, where the polar vortex gets split into two distinct regions.
These climatologies have been obtained with my idealized simulations, averaging over 751 splitting events.
Arrows denote Eliassen-Palm fluxes, wherever they are more than 80% stronger than normal. These are perturbations from the surface, ultimately causing the sudden warming.

The first item shows the zonal wind anomaly, in blue a deceleration, in red an acceleration.
I have cut out a portion to make the interior visible. See how fast this happens? Hence the word 'Sudden'!

The second item shows the anomalous temperature, red when warmer than usual, blue when colder than usual.
Do you see why it's called a 'Sudden Warming'?

Prepared for GK Vallis' second edition of his already legendary book Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics, this rendering
shows a Sudden Stratospheric Warming on February 23, 1979. As one can see, this is a splitting event, where the polar vortex
in the stratospheric splits into two distinct parts. Shown here is the geopotential height anomaly (i.e. difference to climatology),
with positive values in red and negative values in blue. The numbers indicate the pressure levels in hPa.

The data plotted here is based on actual measurements, the ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset.
I have created a climatology for every day of the year, averaged over all longitudes. When freshly loaded,
you see on your left the South Pole, on the right the North Pole. Bottom to top is altitude, from the surface
to about 30km in the stratosphere. Far to near plane is day of the year, with each month's starting day
labeled on the sides.
Blue (cold) and yellow (warm) shows the temperature, and red the westerly wind (darker = stronger).
The arrows show the stratospheric meridional overturning circulation, which is much stronger in the winter
hemisphere, and is responsible for transport of chemical constituents from the tropics towards the poles.
Can you see the effect of having less ozone over the South Pole? Hint: less ozone means
colder stratospheric winter pole and stronger polar vortex (wind).

From MERRA reanalysis data, explore the trajectories of air parcels following the winds for up to two days over planet Earth.
The trajectories visible are from March 2 - 4 2013, with dark blue in the lower stratosphere (100hPa), black in the troposphere (500hPa),
and any other colors in-between. Earth's surface is color coded for pressure, dark spots denoting lows, and bright spots highs.
There are several things going on, especially over the North and South pacific (landmasses are delimited by a brown ribbon if you watch closely).
Also, over Southern Australia, there's a block which will cause large wildfires until the end of that month.